Ah, the joys of planning! As has oft been said, a real plan is nothing more than a blueprint for change, and that's exactly what our plan A (as I detailed about a month ago) has become.
Our two night stay in Crystal Brook went to schedule. Liz spent a number of most enjoyable hours catching with her old work colleague Karen who now lives in this lovely mid north SA town. I even managed to intrude on the 'girls' talk' for a few hours (thanks for the impromptu diner KH...it was grand!). This was a very good start.
And, still on schedule, we moved on to Port Pirie on the Monday morning. Here we intended to spend the next three days. So far so good. Then Murphy, who I am sure has secreted himself somewhere in our rig, struck. I awoke on the Tuesday feeling peaky. By the time we had completed our first good wander around the CBD, I knew I was going down rapidly.
As if to complement my woes, the previously fine weather then turned also. Dust storms followed by heavy winds and rain completed the picture of misery for yours truly. So for the next three days I hardly moved from the van....well, from my bed to be precise. And my estimation that this would take a fortnight to get over was spot on.
By Friday morning I had rallied sufficiently to suggest that we move on to our next planned overnight stay at the tiny border town of Cockburn. We did just that, parked up in the odd little community caravan park opposite the Cockburn Hotel and spent the evening 'across the road'. I'll have much more to say about this later.
I awoke seriously unwell, and that after an almost dry evening. But more significantly, my esteemed travelling companion, who normally shrugs off with complete disdain all manner of community ailments which are laying folk low far and wide, could hardly raise her head off the pillow. As she croaked out an assessment of her condition it was then I knew we were in serious strife.
It as decision time. The thought of pushing through to Wilcannia was completely out of the question. We were both crocks! A quick phone call at 0830 hours had us booked into a drive-thru site at the main park in Broken Hill.
And there we stayed.....for the next two weeks....ill, angry, and frustrated that after finally getting back on the road after twelve months stuck in Adelaide we were again anchored to the spot.
Fortunately we had 'done The Hill' a few years previously so the drive to go sightseeing was not an addition to our frustrations.
But breaking off the exterior door handle of the van two days after or arrival didn't help, particularly when that meant that I had to hitch up during another dust storm a few days later and cart the van off (fortunately only a kilometre of so down the road) to have it repaired.
This had become one of those times when we think "what the hell are we doing this for?"
So to cut to the chase, we did both finally recover (Liz much more quickly than me) and finally hauled out of Broken Hill rejoicing, but now over a fortnight behind our initial schedule.
There was a little ray of sunshine in all this gloom. The brother of our Crystal Brook friend owns the White Cliffs pub. Although we were embarrassed by the fact that we had had to postpone a planned meet with him for two consecutive weekends, our eventual trip up to this extraordinary little opal mining community coincidentally coincided with the annual music festival held there.
Our planned three day stay morphed rapidly into five. We had a ball, but much more of this later.
So, where are we now and what's plan 'C'? After White Cliffs we spent a night in Wilcannia, another in Bourke and we are now sitting pretty in Cunnamulla. Obviously our intention to visit Warren and Walgett have gone by the wayside.
Tomorrow we are off to do the Channel country, beginning with Thargomindah. From there we plan to complete the 'Aussie opal circuit' with a visit to Yowah and Quilpie, thence northwards through Windorah, Jundah, Stonehenge and into to Longreach where we shall turn right and head east to Barcaldine.
At this stage we plan to spend three days there (we have driven through this town on four occasions...this time we'll actually get to have a good look at it) before we had further east to the coast.....route yet to be determined.
We have now confirmed our booking into Kurrimine Beach as 14 July. Let's hope Murphy does not again invoke his damn law and we make it!
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